A person seeking a divorce anywhere in the United States in 2016 is no longer required to prove wrongdoing by the other spouse. In 1970, California enacted the nation’s first “no fault” divorce statute, which allows a spouse to bring a cause of action for divorce based on “irreconcilable differences.” New York was the last state to authorize no-fault divorce, on the ground that “[t]he relationship between husband and wife has broken down irretrievably for a period of at least six months,” in 2010. Many states now only allow no-fault divorce, but New York is among the states that still allow fault-based claims for divorce, such as “cruel and inhuman treatment,” abandonment, and adultery. This can play a role in multiple aspects of a New York divorce, as a Brooklyn court noted in a December 2015 decision, Alice M. v. Terrance T. The court went so far as to describe it as a perfect example of “egregious conduct by one spouse against another spouse.”
The two main issues in the Alice M. case were the equitable division of marital property and a claim for spousal maintenance. Under New York law, most property acquired during a marriage is deemed marital property. Section 236(B)(5) of the New York Domestic Relations Law (DRL) establishes procedures for the equitable distribution of marital property, based on factors like the age and health of the parties, each party’s income, equitable claims or waste by one spouse, or other factors that the court “expressly find[s] to be just and proper.” The court in Alice M. noted that, based on a precedent case, “marital fault is not…‘a just and proper’ consideration in determining equitable distribution of marital property.”
Spousal maintenance, sometimes still known as alimony, is governed by § 236(B)(6) of the DRL. The court may order an amount to be paid by one spouse to the other, based on economic factors like whether child support is to be paid and in what amount, the payor’s ability to pay, and the payee’s needs; and on fault-based factors like waste of marital property and acts of domestic violence by one spouse against another.